U.S. Pat. No. 2,754,304 issued July 10, 1956 to Samuel Swadesh disclosed that the production of furfuryl alcohol by the reduction of furfural using a catalyst consisting essentially of an intimate mixture of reduced copper and anhydrous sodium silicate. U.S. Pat. No. 2,947,707 issued to Preston A. Wells discloses a regeneration process wherein a copper oxide-sodium silicate catalyst is regenerated in an involved multi-step process.
The present invention relates to a process which is much improved with respect to this traditional process, particularly with respect to productivity based on pounds of furfuryl alcohol produced per pound of catalyst, but more significantly with respect to pounds of furfuryl alcohol produced with respect to pounds of active copper metal employed. The productivity improvement which is achieved in accordance with the present invention is important because of several significant aspects. For example, the presently employed regeneration processes can incur approximately 10-15 percent catalyst loss per regeneration cycle due to dusting and mechanical losses during handling. Also, because of the substantially lower level of copper metal present in the method of the present invention, substantially lower exotherms are encountered during regeneration procedures, resulting in more easily controlled regenerations, and in a simple in situ regeneration procedure.
In addition, the improvement of productivity using the lower metal-level catalyst in accordance with the present invention therefore also achieves lower cost inasmuch as catalyst costs are based to a major extent on the concentration of metal present in the catalyst.
Another advantage of the present invention is that an extremely high quality relatively pure furfuryl alcohol is produced directly from furfural in one step in the vapor phase process in accordance with the present invention.